Botswana’s government on Friday announced the temporary closure of southern and central parts of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, saying this is necessary to contain an outbreak of contagious disease among domestic goats that endangers wildlife.
But the British-based group Survival International said the real reason is to restrict the movement of Basarwa tribesmen, popularly known as Bushmen, who are trying to fight eviction from their ancestral homelands by authorities who want to exploit the vast area’s mineral and diamond potential.
Survival is backing the Bushmen in a three-year-old court case, which accuses the government of trying to destroy their traditional way of life. The Bushmen maintain that about 1 800 of them have been forced out of the reserve, about the size of Switzerland, into camps where they have contracted diseases such as the Aids virus and tuberculosis and have become dependent on alcohol.
A handful refuses to leave and continues to live off the land.
Rafael Runco, chairperson of Survival International, said the government is putting guards around the reserve to blockade the area and stop tribesmen going in to hunt and feed their families.
He said there have been a number of arrests and one of the Basarwa leaders have died as a result of torture inflicted under interrogation — although government officials deny all knowledge of this.
”The wildlife department has barred the Bushmen’s lawyers from entering the reserve to consult with their clients, even though the high court specifically asked them not to do so,” Runco said.
He said the radio authority has also refused to renew licences to Bushmen in the reserve who are using community transmitters to contact each other to ask for help in medical or other emergencies.
A United Nations expert on indigenous people’s rights recently said he hopes to visit the area to conduct a first-hand investigation.
The government argues the Bushmen’s continued presence is not compatible with preserving wildlife in the reserve.
Presidential press secretary Jeff Ramsay said the closure of parts of the park follows identification of a highly contagious outbreak of sarcoptic mange among herds of domestic goats and sheep illegally brought into the reserve by Bushmen who resisted being relocated.
Ramsay said the disease has a high fatality rate and is potentially disastrous to the native herds of springbok, which have already declined in numbers over the past decade.
”Susceptible wildlife in the reserve is at risk of contracting this highly fatal disease and there is concern that spread of the disease into wildlife population may have devastating effects,” he said.
He said all movement into and out of the reserve has been restricted in order to minimise the spread of the disease to other populations of animals until authorities can contain the infection.
Diamond giant De Beers, which shares control with the Botswana government of Debswana, the company said to be interested in the diamond rights, has claimed in court that there is no connection between the Bushmen’s evictions and diamonds.
However, this was undermined in court last week by a senior official from the minerals and energy ministry, Akolang Tombale, who said under cross-examination that more than 30 exploration permits, covering most of the Bushman reserve, were applied for just a few days before the Bushman relocations in 2002.
Botswana, a nation of 1,5-million people, has been held up as a model democracy for other African nations and has been ranked among the least corrupt countries on the continent in a survey by the World Economic Forum.
Since diamonds were discovered in the country in 1967, Botswana has prospered. Diamonds account for half of government revenues and three-quarters of all export earnings. — Sapa-AP